REVIEW: ‘Less Of A Stranger’ Isn’t Much Of Anything

There are way too many musical biopics. Less of a Stranger (Mniej Obcy) is no exception. The Polish-language Netflix Original story of 80s Polish rocker Jan Borysewicz is as cookie-cutter as it gets. If you have no idea who Jan Borysewicz or his band Lady Pank are, there’s a somewhat interesting lesson on Communist Polish history to glean here. But otherwise, Less of a Stranger is a bland biopic that could be about pretty much anybody.

Like so many biopic subjects, Borysewicz (Mikołaj Matczak) grew up under dubious conditions. The harshly conservative culture of Poland under both Catholicism and Communism fostered a rebellious streak in Borysewicz growing up. Multiple family tragedies didn’t help either. The latter is explored the most in Less of a Stranger. Borysewicz’s strained relationship with his father is at the center of much of the conflict. It’s entirely trite, however, and never interesting.

Less of a Stranger doesn’t touch on the more interesting parts of Jan Borysewicz’s success.

The plights of Catholicism and Communism are wholly underserved. While the movie opens with police violently shutting down a Lady Pank concert for playing government-censored music, it doesn’t feel like Borysewicz spends time actually grappling with the politics around him. He walks out when he can’t stand it at home anymore. The national curfew and military takeover feel like set dressing rather than true points of conflict that deepen the character.

As for the repressiveness of Catholicism, Less of a Stranger shows one early traumatic scene with a priest and then proceeds to have Borysewicz monologue emptily about God here and there until the movie ends. The questions of faith or its effect on society don’t seem to go any deeper than those of a rebellious teenager going against the grain.

The movie is as basic as anything Netflix produces. You have an opening hook; a flashback to childhood; the one person who believed in Borysewicz, his mother, and everyone else who didn’t; some initial wins; heavy setbacks of the most typical kind; and then, basically nothing. The movie doesn’t even end on a triumphant note. We don’t see Lady Pank go on to be the massively successful band they became. Their most popular song, “Minus Zero,” was played on rotation on MTV in 1985. That’s a pretty cool story for a Polish rock band to tell. But that’s not the story here.

Less of a Stranger can’t fall flat because it never has any peaks to fall from.

The story here is just about how, like every other biopic subject, Borysewicz was too solipsistic, and only a trip to rock bottom and a come-to-Jesus with his past could set him on the path to the fame and success we’re supposed to assume he had. Only, the movie ends without ever really showing that success. Instead, Less of a Stranger falls flat. That is, it would, if it ever had any peaks to fall from.

There is a fair amount of Lady Pank’s music peppered into the movie, but there’s also a fair amount of other people’s music. Specifically, American rock music. While the choice is probably intended to highlight what Borysewicz thought was cool at the time and just how cool he was for thinking so, it makes it harder to enjoy Lady Pank’s actual music when it does play. As a non-Polish speaker, it just leaves you waiting for the next song you actually know to play.

Less of a Stranger is as anodyne as a biopic can be.

The movie is also cursed with an upsetting filter at all times. Less of a Stranger is always either tinted blue or yellow, for some reason. If it’s trying to evoke what movies think the 80s looked like, it doesn’t work and isn’t necessary. The hair and clothes are more than enough to do that without the filter.

If it’s trying to paint Communist Poland as dreary and unpleasant, sure, it’s making the world visually unpleasant, but that seems counterproductive when the point of the movie is to show off the vibrant life that was still rocking in spite of Communism.

Less of a Stranger is as anodyne as a biopic can be. You can guess what will happen before every scene starts, and you’ll be correct every time. It offers a history lesson about Poland under Communism in the 1980s, but the novelty wears off quickly when the characters and their story feel like they could happen anywhere, anytime.

Less of a Stranger is streaming now on Netflix.